[765] "It is the invariable practice," said Mr. Ritchie approvingly, "to provide for the aged paupers a better diet than that for the other classes" (Mr. Ritchie in House of Commons, 6th May 1892; _Hansard_, vol. 4, p. 277). [766] Local Government Board to Bourne Union, August 1892 (_Local Government Chronicle_, 13th August 1892, p. 678); Local Government Board to Caistor Union, September 1892 (_Ibid._ 8th October 1892, p. 859). [767] General Order of 3rd November 1892: Circular of 9th November 1892; Twenty-second Annual Report, 1892-3, pp. lxxxv, 35-6. [768] General Order of 8th March 1894; Twenty-fourth Annual Report, 1894-5, pp. xcix, 4-5. [769] Special Order to Gateshead, 15th February 1896; _see also_ the "Specimen Order" given in Macmorran and Lushington's _Poor Law Orders_, second edition, 1905, p. 1061. [770] Circular on Workhouse Administration of 29th January 1895; Memorandum on Visiting Committees of June 1895; Circular on Classification in Workhouses of 31st July 1896; Twenty-fifth Annual Report, 1895-6, pp. lxxxv, 107-112, 121-3; Twenty-sixth Annual Report, 1896-7, pp. lxxxviii-lxxxix, 9-10. [771] Memorandum on the Duties of Visiting Committees, June 1895; in Twenty-fifth Annual Report, 1895-6, p. 122. [772] Sunday morning, and one day a month, was held to be not sufficient outing. "In the case of aged inmates of respectable character," said Mr. Chaplin "leave of absence might well be allowed on weekdays more frequently than is now the case" [at Old Gravel Lane Workhouse] (_Hansard_, 23rd May 1898, vol. lviii, p. 326). [773] Circular of 4th August 1900, in Thirtieth Annual Report, 1900-1, p. 19. [774] _Ibid._ p. 20. Nor was this merely a formal expression. We see, in the next few years, the Central Authority cordially sanctioning the provision, at no small extra expense in capital and annual maintenance, of new old people's wards in some unions, of specialised old men's and old women's homes in others; even to the extent of permitting (as at Woolwich) the location of the most respectable and best conducted of the aged in a comfortable private mansion conducted with the minimum of rules, and without outward sign of pauperism.